Former Social Worker Accused Of Stealing Millions From City

By JENNIFER 8. LEE

Published: April 6, 2007

An unemployed Brooklyn man was arrested and charged Wednesday with illegally transferring more than $3.6 million from the city comptroller's office. He used the money to pay for jewelry, cellphone bills and insurance premiums, the Manhattan district attorney's office said yesterday.

It is unclear how Tracy Ball, 49, a former social worker who never worked for the city, was able to access a JPMorgan Chase bank account used by the comptroller's office for workers' compensation claims.

However, prosecutors said that from March 2006 to last month, Mr. Ball had made more than 600 electronic transfers from the account to pay for purchases from a retailer named Jewelry Television, based in Knoxville, Tenn.

The company became suspicious about the volume of his purchases and his bulk orders, the district attorney's office said. Within a span of about 12 minutes, for example, he bought 10 pairs of a single type of diamond earring; 15 of a single type of diamond necklace; and 15 of a single type of gold necklace, it said. The next day, he ordered 20 of a single type of diamond bracelet. Jewelry Television alerted JPMorgan Chase, which contacted the comptroller's office, prosecutors said.

All in all, the retailer shipped more than 500 orders of watches, bracelets, necklaces and other items to Mr. Ball to four addresses, including his Brooklyn apartment, his companion's home in Brooklyn, an address in the Bronx and a Manhattan men's shelter where Mr. Ball had been employed as a social worker.

More than 100 pieces of jewelry have been recovered. At Mr. Ball's home, investigators also found two large plasma television sets, $35,000 in cash and three SUVs.

Mr. Ball faces charges of first-degree grand larceny and was arraigned last night in Manhattan.